Monthly Archives: September 2013

It didn’t take long to get to La Malinche National Park (near Huamantla) from Parque Nacional del Chico. It has a huge campground with pretty good facilities. The campground is right at the foot of La Malinche volcano but still at a good 3000m altitude so the temperature was great for us.
First night we decided to BBQ chicken and veg and sit outside. By then it was raining, cold and wet but that is the good British BBQ so it suited us just fine.

Campsite at La Malinche volcanoSeptember 2013

Then that night we both got a pretty awful food poisoning. The following two days were wiped out as we were only sleeping and doing things that I wouldn’t detail here.
Anyhow on the third day we both felt strong enough to go and check out Tlaxcala the capital city of this state that has the same name. Tlaxcala is very cute. Small enough to park at the outskirt and walk in to the centre within 10 minutes. It is a bullfighter town and has a few beef restaurants -if you know what I mean…, a couple of charming little squares and a manicured-treed promenade with fountains, endless churches and the usual nice little cafes, shops, bakeries and all. It had a very nice atmosphere especially as we were approaching one of Mexico’s biggest celebration (16th September) Independence Day so the whole town was dressed up in green-white-red banners, flags and lights. It looked pretty nice. We stayed for dinner in town then headed back to the campground.

TlixcalaSeptember 2013

TlixcalaSeptember 2013

TlixcalaSeptember 2013

TlixcalaSeptember 2013

TlixcalaSeptember 2013

TlixcalaSeptember 2013

We spent the following couple of days to make a video message for my baby brother and his soon-to-be-wife for their wedding day. It turned out to be very silly as I am a pretty poor public-speaker so I kept the talking part short and, as we dedicated the climbing the volcano for them -which gave me boost, it was full of action. Anyway it was fun making it and finally we made it to the top.

La Malinche volcanoSeptember 2013

La Malinche volcanoSeptember 2013

La Malinche volcanoSeptember 2013

Up there my migraine got me so I had to lower down while John climbed up to the side of the crater. I was sitting under a tree for over an hour waiting for him and suddenly I found myself in a dark, thick cloud with rain. I did our signature whistle to signal John but no answer. I decided to walk down back to the camp. There’s only one way so no problem. Besides I was freezing cold, I also though somehow John and I got missed each other so he might be at home already. When I got back there was no sign of Johnny. First I thought, oh well, he should be here soon. But after an hour I begun to worry. He finally got back home pretty upset. He was trying to find me back there. He climbed up and down the summit three times worrying that I got lost, fallen or something. He was coming back down to see if I’m back or call for help. It was one of those misunderstandings when everyone is right and no one is wrong, yet causes a great deal of trouble so we ended up arguing for a hour! Goodness. Now we have a new signature whistle and an emergency plan. All covered.

The video message was edited in a day and sent to my secret person who screened it at the right time. It was a success all around and everyone was crying 🙂
This place was a great place to get ill for a few days, to hike, to chill, to make the silly film and generally to stay a few days to enjoy the fresh air and the forest. After staying here for about 5 days we moved on to Cholula the sister town of Puebla.
Next, Cholula…

After a twisty, long and hot(!) day drive we arrived to a small national park, Mineral del Chico. It is at nearly 3000m altitude so the temperature was balmy. It has (unusually) many campgrounds but none of them was open so we tucked ourselves away in the woods where we saw signs of bush camping (fire pits etc) There was no one to ask for permission from but we felt safe and fine. We stayed here for a couple of nights. It was peaceful, cool, no bugs and fresh air.

Campsite in the parkParque Nacional del ChicoAugust 2013

We wanted to visit a little town right in the middle of the park, called Mineral del Chico. It was 20 mins drive. Mineral del Chico used to be a Cornish mining town in the late 1800s. It is charming and has some great hiking trails, also still has some mines, and most importantly for Johnny’s biggest joy they make Cornish Pasty -as their national dish! It was brilliant though Johnny didn’t like it as much. But we found a cute little cafe with a delightful waiter where we had some real good coffee and a good time chat with Luis the waiter. We visited a mine with a guide then walked around the area. Johnny climbed into every single shift and had a great time.

Visiting a mine in ChicoAugust 2013

Visiting a mine in ChicoAugust 2013

For the next few nights we found another, really magical place to park up. And we returned to Chico the following day too. More hiking, more coffee, then beer and wine and more chat with Luis. It was really a nice day and evening.

By this time it has been raining (very heavily) for 2 days but we enjoyed it. We stayed one more night in the magical forest then decided to move on. Parque Nacional Mineral del Chico was one of our favourite places.

Tuesday morning we left San Miguel de Allende, the second time. We were heading North-East to the Sierra Gorda. We heard it’s beautiful, also a biosphere reserve with eco-tourism etc.

We were taking the longer, more scenic route stopping for one night in San Joaquin in the mountains. Surprisingly it had a wonderful forest-y campground where we could park up for free for the night. Though the street leading up to the camp was very narrow and steep (so are the ones coming back down then out of town the following day) But San Joaquin itself looks pretty and very colourful.

San JoaquinAugust 2013

San Joaquin CampgroundAugust 2013

Then the following day, after a whole day drive on a dirt road we found a spot in a beautiful valley where for our biggest surprise was a family-run campground.

Stopping for lunch, on our way from San JoaquinAugust 2013

Camp in the valleyAugust 2013

After spent a peaceful night at this campsite, we were only a few miles from the Sierra Gorda. We aimed to geth to the town called Jalpan to stop and hang out a day or two. We arrived there at about lunchtime but somehow none of us got the buzz so after having just a quick lunch there we jumped back into Burt and headed to Xilitla we heard so much about.

It wasn’t so much the town that interested us most, it was Las Pozas (The Pools) that got our attention when friends showed us pictures and recommended to visit this place.
Las Pozas is 3 km out of Xilitla in a jungle. It is an experiment of a wealthy English aristocrat, poet Edward James, and his love for art, design, architecture and nature, sprinkled wit his hyperactive imagination. From the mid ’40s for nearly 20 years he and 40 local workers created a monumental, surreal concrete madness in the jungle building bridges, spiral staircases, pavilions, massive concrete flowers and so on, integrating the jungle-given nature, waterfalls and its pools.

Las PosasXilitlaAugust 2013

Las PosasXilitlaAugust 2013

Las PosasXilitlaAugust 2013

Las PosasXilitlaAugust 2013

Las PosasXilitlaAugust 2013

Las PosasXilitlaAugust 2013

We arrived to Las Pozas in the afternoon at closing time but the guy at the entrance gave us permission to park up wherever we like (fit) and we can camp there for the night. It was humid and pretty warm but we loved our spot and the exotic sound of the jungle. We decided to walk to town that evening. It was a few km on a gravel/dirt road by the forest. The town had a lovely atmosphere. Small main square with a church, a bar, a bakery, cafe and a few shops. In the bar we met a few western locals and by their stories we had a good feel about this little town.

Camp at Las PosasXilitlaAugust 2013

The following few 4-5 days we visited Las Pozas a few times, walked on its maze-like trails discovering more and more unfinished buildings, hung out by the waterfall in the pools and just chill and listen to the jungle. In the weekend and evenings we wandered in to town to check out the local market, watch locals dancing on the square (apparently they do this every Saturday at market time) and meeting our new local friend, Walter.

XilitlaAugust 2013

XilitlaAugust 2013

XilitlaAugust 2013

XilitlaAugust 2013

For the mornings, we discovered a sweet little cafe (at our side of town) that was run by a very nice lady (spoke excellent English too) making amazing breakfasts, yummy cheese cake, coffee, had wifi and a warm smile. And on our last day she let us fill up with water from her garden tap.

Walter, back in Xilitla, mentioned the Sotano de Golondrinas (The Cave of the Swallows) A cave that’s 33-50 m diameter and 333 m deep! Every day at sun rise thousands of birds (mainly swallows) fly out of it and at sunset return. I was very keen to see this. It was further north from us (generally the opposite direction where we want to head) but it wasn’t far. After a short couple of hours drive we arrived right where the entrance was. We asked the owner of the little cafe if we can park up for the night. It was OK. We planned to see the birds in the morning, but as we were there at sunset we decided to get our tickets now and walk down to the cave to see the returning birds too. I don’t know what made me more stunned, the size of this cave (it was bonkers!) or the hundreds of birds flying in to it. Literally I forgot to breath when I looked down to the cave. Couldn’t see the bottom of it. Apparently you can wholly fit the Chrysler Building in to it! The following morning we got up in the dark, walked down again and see them flying out. It was pretty spectacular.

Sotano de GolondrinasAugust 2013

That morning we didn’t have the problem leaving too late. By 8AM we were on the road heading south towards Pachuca.